Neva Black and the Prisoner Azkaban
by Miss E. Thropp
Summary: This is a story of the daughter of Sirius Black, Neva Black and how she deals with the recent excape of Black from Azkaban. R&R Please. If you guys like it I will write more.
1. The Escape

She was having a panic attack. How could this happen? How could he have escaped? No one had ever gotten past the dementors. It just didn't happen…But he did…he was 'at large' as the Daily Profit had put it. And while the whole wizarding world was up in arms and deathly frightened by the prospect of Sirius Black on the loose, one thirteen-year-old girl was quite intrigued by the matter.

Neva Lyte Black was the daughter of Sirius and Rose Black and when she was a just a wee babe her mother had been killed one infamous Halloween night. Rose Black had died at the side of her dearest and best friend, Lily Evans Potter. They had died trying to protect their children, whom they knew, would one day set the world free of this terrible tyranny. Yes, Neva Black too had a scar that one only gets when one is touched by powerful dark magic, but precious few knew of her scar. Not even the Boy-Who-Lived knew that one of his best friends shared his magical anomaly.

Neva glanced worriedly out of the window. The full moon shone ominously back at her. She knew that a few doors down a wolf with a snout any expert would say was a bit shorter than usual was curled up waiting for the moon to wane. After her mother had been murdered and her father sent to Azkaban for his crimes, she had been sent to stay with the only person that would take her in, Remus J. Lupin.

Remus had always been the best father to her that he could be. Teaching what he could of the wicked ways of the wizarding world and treating the subject of her parents carefully. Telling her stories from his school years and the great battles fought against Death Eaters. He always talked of Sirius as if he was already dead. She had wondered for many years why he did this; he knew that she knew this wasn't the case. She would never forget realizing that the Sirius Black that Remus had known was dead. Now there only remained the servant of The Dark Lord, and while, in her heart, she wanted to believe that he hadn't betrayed them all and that some mistake had been made and that he was really the fun loving and rash man that R.J. had always lovingly told her stories about, she always managed to brush off those feelings. Everything pointed to the terrible fact that this soulless man, whom she was doomed to call father, had used her mother and his best friend to spy for the enemy and then had sacrificed them all to his ill intentions. She must never let herself loose sight of this matter. She must never let him fool her the way that he had James and her mother.

Her stomach gave an involuntary leap…James…Harry…While she and Harry, Ron and Hermione had become quite good friends over the past two years at Hogwarts, she had never had the courage to tell them her surname, and with it the identity of her murderous father. While Harry, wouldn't have gotten the significance of the name Sirius Black, she was sure that it wouldn't be long before that name would be the epicenter for Harry's vendetta. What would happen when they found out that Neva Lupin was in fact Neva Black?

While she had always used Lupin's surname at school, she had constantly reminded herself that she was a Black, and she had promised herself to be the one to break the dark family legacy that the Blacks had always been so proud of. She felt her heart plummet and she promptly decided that this something that she just wasn't ready for. She shook her head. Straightened herself up and sternly told herself to simply deal with it, a singular simple step at a time.

"The first step is always the hardest right?.." she asked her pillow, "What is the first step?" But even as the words crossed her lips and dissolved into the darkness, she knew the answer. She had to tell Lupin.

After the full moon, she would always make a wonderful breakfast and wait excitedly until he finally emerged from his den and rejoined the two-legged world. He would smile at her and asked her in a worn out, monotonous way what he had missed and pick up the Daily prophet from the day before. When Neva was young she would always take pride in the fact that she could tell this older and wiser wizard the news of the time, but the next morning as she put the finishing touches on breakfast she gave considerable consideration to lying the Profit next to his breakfast and finding a nice corner to hide in.

She heard his door open and his steady footsteps stretch down the hallway. He walked into the kitchen. She burst into tears.

Lupin gave her a long wondering look. Not knowing what on earth could be wrong with the young witch. He sat down at his plate, picked up his fork.

"Have a good night?" He asked without the slightest trace of sarcasm in his voice. Neva looked up at him and gave him a glare that rivaled Professor McGonagall.

"It went almost as well as yours," She shot back as she steadily fought back her tears

He simply gave her a quizzical look, "Did you get attacked by vicious vampire or hellish harpies? Because if not, I think I may still have you beat." He winked at her.

"No," she started quietly, "..but…er…there was a break out…" Lupin raised an eyebrow at her and wondered how he had made it through these past 13 years of what seemed to be marked by utter confusion.

"A break out of what?…and from where while we are at it." He softly prodded her forward.

Neva took a deep breath, "Azkaban," She replied in a barely audible whisper. Lupin's mind shot directly to his old school mate that had been long locked up behind the bars of the famed wizard prison and he lunged for the day old Prophet.

"That can't be….I mean…How could…What about th-…This is unbelievable." He sputtered on a bit but Neva wasn't really paying absorbing any of his rambling. The initial look on his face had told her everything.

He was afraid.

So was she.

She was trying to find some way to verbalize the odd tightening occurring in her stomach when someone quite unexpectedly knocked on their front door. Neva and Lupin exchanged slightly frantic looks. He hadn't found them already had he? Was Sirius Black standing on their doorstep?

Lupin stood-up, "I think we are being a bit paranoid. I'll go see who's at the door." He put down the old Prophet and picked-up the new one as he strode towards the front door reading as he walked. She heard the door open, and before she heard Lupin's friendly greeting her imagination had unraveled many different bloody and disastrous ways that greeting could have gone.

"Dumbledore! I'm surprised to see you here…though I don't suppose I should be. Any idea how he did it?"

" To be honest with you, Remus I have not the slightest notion how he managed to escape, but don't let that get too far around, we wouldn't want to ruining my reputation, now would we?" Albus Dumbledore winked at Neva as she walked in. "And how are you taking this new development, Miss Black?" He asked in a tone identical to one asking some other one's opinion of the weather.

"It is a bit nerve racking, isn't it? He is a wicked, wicked man… and who knows what he could be capable of…why he wanted to get out…who he is going to go after…or even…And then what if they find out…I mean Harry won't be all lilies and roses when he finds out what my Fath- What Sirius Black did."

Dumbledore gave her a knowing smile, "I'm sure Mr. Potter, and your other friends will stand by you, even when they find our who your father is. Gryffindors aren't the type to turn their back on someone for their parentage, we usually leave that to the Slytherins." His blues eyes twinkled with mischievous truth. "Speaking of Hogwarts," his tone had changed into that of a Headmaster on school business, " I find that I am again in need of a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."


	2. Hogwarts Bound

Neva and Lupin arrived at Platform 9 ¾ a good half hour before The Hogwarts Express was to leave the station

Neva and Lupin arrived at Platform 9 ¾ a good half hour before The Hogwarts Express was to leave the station.

"Not really sure why you wanted to get here quite so early, R.J. You could have just scared some first years out of their compartment inst-st-st-ead," Neva yawned out the last word, taking the edge off of her sharp remark.

"Just because you left all your packing to the last minute is no reason to take your anger out on me. You coming on?" He asked her as he stepped on to the train.

"Eh, I'll wait out here for the others. Wouldn't wanted to associated too closely with an old man like you," She grinned at him as she turned to walk down the platform.

As she walked down the platform she ran into Oliver Wood. While Neva wasn't technically on the Gryffindor house team, she was their standard stand-in; however, her preferred position was beater… especially when George was playing opposite of her. She smiled at the thought of that certain Weasley twin.

"Hello, Neva. Good holiday?" Wood asked her as she approached him.

"Well enough. Decided who you are going to nick off so I can I have a full time spot on your team?"

He shook his head at her. "You will have to wait till next year when I'm gone.. Or I suppose until someone gets hit with a bludger too hard."

"I'll hold out for the latter," Neva replied with a false sweet-maliciousness in her voice all the while looking over his shoulder where Mr. Weasley and Harry had just come through the barrier, followed closely by Ginny and Percy. She smiled back at Wood made her excused, escaped the Quidditch Captain and made her way over to Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys.

Having heard of Harry's dramatic exit from Privet Drive earlier in the summer only through extensive letter writing (mostly on Hermione's part after she had joined up with the wizarding family in Diagon Alley) and then not being able to join her friends for the remainder of the summer made Neva quite antsy to get back into their company.

Hermione's ecstatic greeting hit Neva's ears a little too sharply, "Nev! You already here! I was so sorry you couldn't meet up with us sooner. Your father must be some stick in the mud," Neva heard Ron snort from somewhere behind Hermione as if Hermione calling someone else a stick in the mud was the worst kind of hypocrisy. Neva finished her enthusiastic greetings to the rest of the clan, making a point to congratulate Percy on becoming Big Head, I mean Head Boy, all the while making their way to pack their luggage on the train, and then back to say their farewells to the Mr. and the Mrs. Weasley.

Neva always felt a little awkward around the full family. Maybe it was simply the fact that they had two parents and Neva was resentful, or that somewhere deep down she wished that the Weasleys would have semi-adopted her like they had Harry, giving her extra hugs and little one-on-one pep talks to her the way that Mr. Weasley was doing now. She watched the exchange occurring between Harry and Mr. Weasley… Were they talking about Black? Did Mr. Weasley know that she was his daughter? Was he warning Harry? How much of this could her mind handle? Was she going to be forever wondering if everyone knew her secret? She smiled grimly to no one but herself…Yes, Neva. You will always have these fears. You will be plagued to live a paranoid life until you finally get enough guts to tell them the truth.

Caught up in her own thoughts she didn't realize that the train was preparing to leave. Harry grabbed her arm as he walked by and pulled him on the train after her.

"I need to talk to you in private," Harry muttered to his three friends. "I've got something I need to tell you all, too." Neva muttered back as they started down the corridor greeting friends and glaring at Slytherins. Neva was keeping sharp eye out for Remus, hoping that she got a chase to tell them that her stick in the mud would be teaching them Defense Against The Dark Arts this year. As they came to the end of the train they realized there was a complete lack of empty compartments. Ron led them into the emptiest one they could find. Remus was napping propped up against the window. When she saw him napping in his tattered robes her mind went into two different directions. One side was poking fun at Remus for dragging her out of bed, just so he could find and empty compartment and take a nap. The other side was realizing that she was about to explain.

"He's Professor R.J—" Hermione stopped half way through his name then looked at Neva with confusion and questioning in her eyes.

"Yeah, Lupin ," She finished for Hermione.

"WHAT?!" Both of the boys asked dumbly looking frantically between Neva and Lupin as if trying to find any physical trait linking the two together as father and daughter.

"Hush!" Hermione scolded at the pair of them, "Don't you two pay any attention to anything other than Quidditch? Because if you did, you would know that Lupin is her godfather. Her real parents are dead." Neva twitched a little when Hermione said that. It was mostly true. I mean Lupin had always acted as if Sirius was dead. Maybe she should tell them…

"Yeah, well he was—he is—my fath—R.J.'s taken the Defense Against the Dark Arts job," She finished more than a little clumsily. "I was going to tell you all before hand but we haven't be able to talk almost at all this holiday and we were busy—anyways, that was my news. Harry's turn!" She smiled at turned to stare at Harry intently praying to anyone who would listen that they wouldn't push anything and that their attention would be easily wavered.

Hermione looked to Harry for his news, but Ron and Harry were still looking like they had just be confounded.

"Harry…Your news?" Hermione prodded impatiently at their silent confusion. Harry looked at Hermione with the same confused look on his face. "Oh, right...well…"

Neva had left the compartment and was wandering down the corridor. She mindlessly greeted people as they passed, much to preoccupied with what Harry knew and what Harry had said to put her mind into socializing. "He's at Hogwarts,"…_ He's _at Hogwarts? What about _her _why wasn't he mentioning that she was at Hogwarts. Not that Neva necessarily wanted to be targeted for murder from her father, but it would be nice if he at least thought of her.. Neva mentally slapped herself.


End file.
